Fixed the house up, got it lookin' fine.And now I'm chilling his favorite....beer.

My plan: Outfit the car with pillows and a cooler with his favorite beverages. Throw something good to eat in there, too. Outfit myself in one of the six new cocktail dresses Shila and I bought last weekend, and the fabbo Italian shoes he bought me in Chicago. Try, despite the intense 95-degree heat and thick humidity, to arrive at the airport 2 hours away still smelling real nice. (This will probably be the biggest challenge I face in 2006).Welcome my sweetheart home with open arms. Drive him home while watching him sleep, if he needs to, or listen to the tale of his travels.

Sugar magnolia, blossoms bloomin'Posts my blog while I ramble 'roundFeeds my kids and mows the lawnNo one like her I've ever found

Apologies to the Dead.

Here's what he'll see when he wakes up Wednesday morning: Liam in his race car jammies with a load of fresh snap beans from the garden.(Darn it, Phoebe's at the beach!) The little fishpond, abloom with Rudbeckia. The terraced butterfly beds, blazing with liatris and salvia, coneflower, calendula and butterfly weed.Chet Baker, yodeling WOO WOO WOO WOO WOO! Hi, Daddy! Where have you BEEN?

And come nightfall, I will put him in the hammock, to watch the lightning bugs come out over the long meadow. Squint and you will see them in this photo. Bill has been away 20 of the last 40 days, and I have missed him terribly. Almost come unglued. So have Phoebe and Liam. Chet's all mopey, too. The next trip we take, we'll all be together. Baker, too. It won't be to Africa, but it could be anywhere. We don't mind. He'll be with us. BT3, we love you too much. Welcome home.

About Bill

Bill of the Birds

Bill Thompson III is the editor of Bird Watcher's Digest by day. He's also a keen birder, the author of many books, a dad, a field trip leader, an ecotourism consultant, a guitar player, the host of the "This Birding Life" podcast, a regular speaker/performer on the birding festival circuit, a gentleman farmer, and a fungi to be around. His North American life list is somewhere between 673 and 675. His favorite bird is the red-headed woodpecker. His "spark bird" was a snowy owl. He has watched birds in 25 countries and 44 states. But his favorite place to watch birds is on the 80-acre farm he shares with his wife, artist/writer Julie Zickefoose. Some kind person once called Bill "The Pied Piper of Birding" and he has been trying to live up to that moniker ever since.